March 1.
Today, Fallas starts in earnest. At midnight, fireworks thundered over our neighborhood in Valencia, Spain. This morning, at 8 AM, the rumbles started again. At first we thought something had gone wrong, but no, this round was meant to be just noise. Lots of it. First on the Plaza del Pilar, the central square of our area. Then in a loud parade through the narrow streets, with a band leading a crowd throwing firecrackers on the pavement. The smell and smoke of gunpowder pervaded the scene.
But Fallas is so much more than mere noise. UNESCO put it on its global cultural heritage list. It is an annual celebration to commemorate Saint Joseph. Fallas refers to both the celebration and the monuments shown during and burnt at the end of the festival.
About a quarter of the 800,000 Valencians apparently participate and tens of thousands of tourists show up. Equally, many people leave the city because of the endless noise, with loud parades, daily fireworks and partying people taking over the city for three weeks.
I photographed a bit of Fallas last year and plan to photograph this year. In the coming days and weeks, I’ll pick up this site again to share impressions of Fallas and discuss the gear I used and will use this year.
For now, here are some images from last year’s Fallas:
